Tyreso Ju-Jutsu Club

I did my utmost to rate everything as fairly as possible, but being that it's "my" club some bias is unavoidable. Even so, I'll soldier on.

Aliveness (5-6): This one was hard to pick, because it usually varies greatly. The way it typically works is this; the specific techniques are trained in a compliant fashion, but at several points we may do an alive exercise that isn't tied to a particular technique.

For instance, in one exercise, we're divided into pairs (unsurprisingly enough) and placed along one edge of the mat, then the instructor says something like "Alright, so person A in the pair is going to walk straight towards the other side of the mat, and do his damndest to keep moving in that direction. Person B will do everything in his/her power to control A and force him back to his starting position." It's tricky, it's exhausting and I think it gives an idea of what pulling techniques off would be like on a resisting opponent. What you learn is that it is *really* damn hard to stop a determined person, even when in pairs of three and two people are trying to hold the other guy in place it's a struggle.

A lot of drills we do work this way, and are not weighed down by being restrictive as to what technique is allowed, as long as it works, right? Similar examples of drills we do include guard-passing business on the ground (along with more traditional Ne Waza/Rolling/Whatever you fancy to call it), more Judo-style randori and full-contact sparring has also begun to be brought into the regimen more often lately. When summarized like this the aliveness seems rather high, but it was mostly the fact that the more complex techniques are practiced compliantly that compelled me to rate it middle-of-the-road.
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Equipment (6): Really, the most equipment we tend to use is the mat, one Gi per person and each-other. There is occasional use of focus mitts for striking drills (all of which are in perfectly fine condition and are provided by the club). The sparring mentioned above is not mandatory to partake in, and as such interested parties are expected to purchase the essential equipment (mouthguard, cup, gloves and shin pads) themselves.
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Gym Size (4): "Basement" may not be a perfectly applicable term, but it isn't far off. Basically, a local school has a huge sport hall in which a small dojo is located (there is a larger room right next to it where the club used to practice, but as the club shrunk in size for various reasons the need for it faded). We are a fairly small club at present (20-ish members total, on an average session there'll be about 10-12 people on the mat + one or two instructors), so the size of the training locales is rarely an issue, though it does teach you situational awareness since carelessness can result in you throwing your Uke into someone's face.
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Atmosphere/Attitude (8): This is the place where the club really shines. When I first started, I didn't know anyone in the club, had never practiced martial arts before, and had no clue what to expect. I was nervous as crap. Within a few minutes of getting there, as we waited for the younger class to finish their lesson, a girl approximately my own age, sporting a orange-belted Gi, came up and asked if I was new (which was probably kinda easy to tell as I was sporting track pants and a T-shirt). At that point, everyone standing around introduced themselves, asked if I'd done martial arts before, and it just went from there. Welcomed at first sight.

The club aims itself at a broad range of characters, regardless of whether you are shooting for a black belt in 4 years or just wanna get some exercise and meet people, the training is open to everyone. The instructors don't have a trace of the arrogant narcissism I feel can easily come up in these situations; we don't call him Sensei, or holy grandmaster of supreme skill and knowledge, we call him Jonas. 'Cause that's his name. Everyone does their best to make everyone feel welcome, and the friendly atmosphere can sometimes extend to the comical (I was rolling with a guy as we were having a friendly chat about what we were doing the coming weekend), but regardless there is little else you could ask as far as atmosphere goes, in my mind.
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Striking Instruction (6): It's solid, but not elaborated upon often. We do pad work every now and then, and as I stated previously sparring is being added as a more commonly recurring event (one instructor in particular is pushing for it to be at the very least bi-monthly). Our typical "striking", however, comes in the form of very basic distraction techniques meant to simplify the execution of another technique (eg. you try to break Uke's choke, he's a little too strong / you're a little too unskilled, you kick him in the shin and break the grip while he's worrying about his leg, etc).
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Grappling Instruction (7): The real meat and potatoes of the system, JJK teaches grappling at all ranges, though perhaps prioritizing joint locks and the like over throws. Ne Waza isn't really a focal point of the system either, but it is definitely a noteworthy aspect (every belt from yellow to 1st Dan has at least one defense from your back in its curriculum). The instructors are perfectly capable of teaching both the basic and more advanced aspects of the techniques and are excellent at providing assistance if a technique isn't working for you.
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Weapons Instruction (1): I rated this a one for the simple fact that weapon usage really isn't included in the system, unless you count defensive drills against weapons.
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Average score: 6

So there you have it, my little review of Tyreso Ju-Jutsu (or TJJK, as the cool kids call it). Being that there doesn't seem to be a large amount of Swedes around here, I figure this might not be overly useful to anyone, but hopefully it'll be interesting to see how things work up in the mysterious north. If anyone *is* in the region as is interested in the style, this club has my whole-hearted recommendation. If I omitted anything in my review, or just completely misunderstood anything in regards to the review process, please let me know so I can redeem my honor and commit Hara-Kiri.

I'm happy you feel I did a fair job; if anything I think the 1-10 rating descriptions could be a little confounding; for instance, Striking Instruction 4-5 indicates limitations as to punching/kicking only, or being for demonstration only; a 6-7, however, is stated as indicating success at competitions and such, which I honestly have no idea whether or not that is the case. Being that martial arts aren't very well-established in Sweden, these competitions (if they exist) tend to be very rare.

On the topic of bias, it doesn't necessarily have to be the case where I give my club all tens because I like it, but because I have a positive disposition towards it I'm naturally inclined to give it high scores, especially in the atmosphere/attitude-department. Not saying you're wrong or that I disagree in any way, and I'm happy you felt it was a fair review, cheers!

Being that martial arts aren't very well-established in Sweden, these competitions (if they exist) tend to be very rare.

What on earth are you talking about? Judo and BJJ are very present in Sweden, with the Swedish Judo open attracting hundreds of competitors from over 25 countries annually. This is besides the prevalence of striking arts like muay thai and western boxing, which is what swedish UFC fighter Alexander Gustafsson competed in before turning to MMA. Martial arts in Sweden are a comfortable step beyond well established.

What on earth are you talking about? Judo and BJJ are very present in Sweden, with the Swedish Judo open attracting hundreds of competitors from over 25 countries annually. This is besides the prevalence of striking arts like muay thai and western boxing, which is what swedish UFC fighter Alexander Gustafsson competed in before turning to MMA. Martial arts in Sweden are a comfortable step beyond well established.

How long have you been involved in them?

First off, being that I practice neither Judo or BJJ, I can make no claims as to their popularity and is in fact irrelevant on the subject of whether or not amateur striking competitions are readily available. Allow me to specify that I was not referring to all forms of martial arts competition in my statement, but only providing my own (limited) insight where the availability of amateur striking comps are concerned.

Second, I have no intention to sound rude in asking this, but I feel you are very confident in your knowledge of the state of martial arts in Sweden (which I'm not saying isn't the case), is there any specific reason for this knowledge (being that your location is listed as Canada)?

Finally, I'll be the first to say that my experience where martial arts are concerned is haphazard at best, I'm only relaying the impression I've gotten. When I say that martial arts aren't well-established in Sweden, I mean to say that there isn't a huge variety of them on offer. Sure, it's easy to find a Judo club, and Ju-Jutsu Kai is pretty easy in the Stockholm area, but you wanna practice Eskrima? Forget about it.

Just to throw it out there, by the way, while I consider my English to be fairly good, taking my nationality/age into account, the fact that it's my second language means that the more complex intricacies of what certain words can imply are sometimes lost on me, meaning that I sometimes type out something that a native English speaker interprets very differently from how I intended it. With that in mind, take my comments with a grain of salt, and ask me to clarify if anything seems ubiquitous.

As far as your written English goes, you write clearly and with enough eloquence that I can't detect any linguistic confusion. I don't think you need to worry about that.

Originally Posted by Hadzu

Second, I have no intention to sound rude in asking this, but I feel you are very confident in your knowledge of the state of martial arts in Sweden (which I'm not saying isn't the case), is there any specific reason for this knowledge (being that your location is listed as Canada)?

This is a perfectly fair question and I should address this before getting to any other point. To answer in complete honesty: although I've lived in Europe in the past, I have not practised martial arts in Sweden and my information comes from looking up the activity of various clubs online. The fact that notice of recent competitions along with their records is available is, I'm sure you'd agree, a good sign that they are occurring.

Originally Posted by Hadzu

First off, being that I practice neither Judo or BJJ, I can make no claims as to their popularity and is in fact irrelevant on the subject of whether or not amateur striking competitions are readily available. Allow me to specify that I was not referring to all forms of martial arts competition in my statement, but only providing my own (limited) insight where the availability of amateur striking comps are concerned.

Competitions must be being held, seeing that Alexander Gustafsson was amateur boxing champion in the country before going pro in MMA. A quick google of kyokushin tournament Sweden, [insert spelling of jujutsu] tournament Sweden and other traditional striking arts with the terms "tournament sweden" all turn up recent (2013) events.

Originally Posted by Hadzu

When I say that martial arts aren't well-established in Sweden, I mean to say that there isn't a huge variety of them on offer. Sure, it's easy to find a Judo club, and Ju-Jutsu Kai is pretty easy in the Stockholm area, but you wanna practice Eskrima? Forget about it.

I'm not convinced at all. There are websites for kali, arnis, and indeed escrima online for clubs in various places around the country. For example:

I would refer you here, with no offence meant, to my earlier question about how long you've been practising. The reason I ask is that I have a hunch you've perhaps underestimated the prevalence of martial practise and competition in Sweden due to relatively short exposure to it. If this is not the case then may I ask if your club actively avoids it? By your review it doesn't sound like this is necessarily the case.

Ah, I think I see the problem here. Firstly, I'm legitimately surprised to see the existence of those clubs, but happy to have learned something new. My problem is that I live in the Stockholm area (east coast), and most martial arts clubs in Sweden (at least the ones that practice somewhat unusual arts), for whatever reason, are on the other end of the country, which naturally makes it tough for people in or near the capital to train in them. The second link, for instance, is for a club in Gothenburg/Göteborg (west coast), but I understand the confusion when I claim it's hard to find martial arts clubs and they're plainly visible online; I suppose my problem is more on a local level than a national one.

On the subject of competitions, I'm sure it's available to those who persistently seek them out, though I haven't had much of an inclination to, JJK isn't particularly sport-oriented (but does happen) and if I wanted to compete in kickboxing/boxing, I'd be training in it, more likely than not. However, I don't mean to evade your question about my experience, as I will be the first to admit I am a humongous noob (7-8 months) and haven't paid much attention to MA prior to beginning my training (Bruce Lee movies don't count). I agree that this is probably very relevant to the topic, as I'm convinced that it's the sort of thing you notice more and more once you're "initiated", as is the case with many things, and completely agree that my statement may have been presumptuous. I have heard my instructor actively encourage us to compete, so I don't think there's any outspoken dislike of competition.

If this is a point of interest, I'll be sure to ask my much more experienced friends in the club about the prevalence of comps and such, and allow me to thank you for being mature and objective and facilitating a constructive, friendly discussion; something all too rare on teh interwebs.

Well, I don't know about those two links for escrima. On the first link you see that only two of the "afiliated" school have websites. Neither of them looking like legit escrima. One has a picture of someone doing an "X" block knife defense, and the other is a Kempo school.

The second link was to a real FMA school, but as he said...accross the country.

But I don't think the OP was being deceptive when he said that their isn't a lot around him. When I had only been in martial arts for a few months, I didn't think there was much around here. As I talked to people, I learned what was really available.

Yeah, that does seem pretty legit; don't really think a translation is required, as it is pretty much what it seems like, just a list of this guy Kenneth Jonasson's training, what seminars he's arranged, and so on. Honestly, Eskrima was mostly just a random example, but recently I've begun to notice far more martial-arts stuff than earlier (even though it feels like 70% of the available clubs train either Judo, Aikido or TKD), and I know for a fact that a Jutsu-friend also trained _in _un at a location literally across the street from where we practice the Jitz. I guess the moral of the story might be that it *is* out there, but these places are strangely underground.